Polynesia

French Polynesia covers a territory larger than Europe and is made up of countless islands and atolls. There is great marine biodiversity throughout the region, including marine mammals, migratory species such as sea turtles, and pelagic species including sharks.

The expedition to French Polynesia took Alexandra and her team to Tahiti and Rangiroa where they were filming a documentary about shark conservation and the shark finning trade. In the past decade, shark finning (the practice of slicing off the shark's fins and throwing the animal back in the water) has contributed greatly to the decline of these critically important keystone predators. In the past couple of years, the government has made efforts to protect the sharks of Polynesia but there are enormous challenges to the successful outcome of those initiatives, including poaching in the outer atolls which are practically impossible to patrol.

The slaughter of sharks has been of great concern for the Tahitians who traditionally revere sharks as a sacred being and a protective totem. Children play in the water with the little black-tip reef sharks in a society where people and sharks cohabitate peacefully. There is no way to describe the cultural and spiritual loss the Polynesian people will experience if their sharks disappear.

The threats to the marine environment are of great concern as well. Sharks have ruled the oceans for 400 million years and the oceans as we know them evolved with sharks as the top keystone predators maintaining the balance of the marine ecosystems. Removing sharks from the sea will cause unanticipated repercussions that will be felt throughout the food chain. Shark conservation, of all species globally, is an urgent priority.

The documentary, Les Ailerons du Lagon, has been released on French television.